Fluides Complexes et Instabilités Hydrodynamiques

Fluid mechanics opens on problems of ever increasing complexity. Complexity may arise because the Navier-Stokes equation, although deceiptively simple engenders ever more complex solutions such as contorted vortical flows. Hydrodynamic instabilities occur in a bewildering variety of symmetries and mechanisms.

When capillarity and interfaces are added the whole complex phenomenology of droplets and bubbles is obtained. Large numbers of droplet and bubbles, or solid particles, create an additional layer of complexity as in atomizing jets and sprays or sedimenting flows. Eventually, living systems offer breathtaking complexity.

Most of the research in the group is "curiosity driven". Nevertheless, innumerable areas of target-oriented research are based on the Fluid Mechanics of Complex Flows. A common theme in the group is to treat the resulting complexity as a bona fide scientific inquiry, in line with the currently hot topics in the international community of theoretical physics, fluid mechanics and applied mathematics.